News Categories

Sports Categories

News Archives

Poll

Scaled-Back Gun Bill Passes MN Senate 58-9

Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at 7:14 am

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Senate approved a scaled-back, revised gun bill. The bill would fills gaps in databases consulted in present gun background checks by including older court records, but isn’t deemed an expansion of background checks.

The Associated Press reports the Senate approved the bill Wednesday on a 58-9 vote. Identical language was also added to a public safety finance bill.

The bill is likely to disappoint gun control activists who came into this legislative session hoping for wider restrictions on access to guns. But efforts to implement wider background checks and other new regulations ran into trouble after Democrats from rural districts refused to get on board.

Sponsor Sen. Ron Latz told the AP he removed all controversial provisions from his bill, and it won the backing of gun rights groups. The bill awaits a House vote.